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Freshman Applicants

You must apply as a freshman applicant if you are currently in high school, even if you are taking college courses. If you are participating in a dual-enrollment program, you should apply as a freshman even if you will have earned enough college credits for an associate's degree upon completion of your program. If you have left high school early and are attending a college or university as a full-time student, you must apply as a transfer student.

All applicants must apply by submitting a Common Application online, which includes a Writing Supplement.

Key Dates and Deadlines

Application Type

Application Deadline

Financial Aid Deadline

Notification Date

Early Decision I

November 1

November 15

December 15

Early Decision II

January 1

January 15

February 15

Regular Decision

January 1

February 15

April 1

Applicants to Tisch School of the Arts or Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development:

We recommend submitting the Common Application one month in advance for any program that requires an artistic review. This will allow you more time to prepare your portfolio or schedule an audition by the application deadline.

Applying for Early Decision at NYU

Philosophy and Process

NYU's Early Decision programs are binding agreements: if an applicant is offered admission and provided with a financial aid package that enables the student to enroll, the student must withdraw any previously submitted applications and accept NYU's admission offer – roughly within 2-3 weeks of receiving an admission offer. Students are then restricted from filing any new applications as well. We believe that part of our commitment to Early Decision applicants is to provide an "early" decision, and as a result, we either admit or deny Early Decision candidates. Please note that Early Decision students who are denied admission may not re-apply as Regular Decision applicants.

Students applying for Early Decision admission must follow the same procedures and submit all of the same materials outlined on the instructions page of our website, including meeting any Additional Program Requirements for the student’s school or college of interest.

Early Decision and Financial Aid

NYU uses the same methodology in providing financial aid for Early Decision candidates as we do in providing financial aid for Regular Decision candidates. Students are not offered more or less financial aid based on when they apply for admission.

For Early Decision candidates, we use information students share with us via the CSS Profile application, administered by the College Board, to provide admitted students with an estimated financial aid package with their admissions decision. Students who are admitted during ED I must follow up by submitting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to be provided with their official financial aid award in late April.

Students will only be released from the Early Decision agreement if their estimated financial aid package does not enable them to attend. Students must be aware that applying Early Decision will not enable them to compare financial aid packages from other universities. If comparing financial aid packages will be necessary for a student, the student should apply under our Regular Decision program. NYU will still reserve the majority of our admission offers for students applying for Regular Decision, so students should not feel pressure to apply Early Decision if finances are of concern.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Applying Early Decision

The biggest advantage to applying Early Decision is that if you are offered admission, your search process can be completed early and thus, reduce anxiety over the admission process. Our Early Decision programs are only binding if we are able to admit you to your primary school, college, program or campus of interest. If offered admission, you will have 25 days to respond to your offer of admission. You may not apply Early Decision for one campus and request to be considered under our Regular Decision for another campus. You will be considered for any and all campuses when you initially apply for admission.

Many students want to know if it is “easier” to be admitted through our Early Decision process. The reality is that no, it is not “easier” to be admitted Early Decision, as the quantifiable criteria we use to evaluate candidates for admission – GPA and class rank (if available), test scores, etc. – is the same during both the Early and Regular Decision processes. That said, given the relatively small size of our Early Decision applicant pool, we are sometimes able to admit a larger percentage of our applicants during Early Decision. For our New York campus, however, our most recent admit rate was roughly 32% - both Early Decision and Regular Decision.